ECO-ISLANDS

A.G.A Eco-Islands

A.G.A manufacture and install various sizes of floating modular reed-beds. Eco-Islands work on a number of levels and provide important ecological benefits for fisheries, lakes, reservoirs, canals and ponds. They encourage a balanced ecology both above and below the water line; they also reduce the need for restocking and improve natural population expansion through the provision of valuable spawning habitat. They can help to reduce bank erosion and are immediately effective; they give protection to vulnerable stands of emergent and marginal plants on lakes where the wash from sports and wave action may cause damage. Eco-Islands provide sanctuary for many aquatic creatures and can function as markers or separation barriers for different activities.

It is recognised that predation by cormorants and other avian predators may cause problems at individual fisheries by damaging stocks of fish and reducing catches. While predation is just one of a wide range of factors that can affect fish populations, it can, on its own, have potentially serious financial implications for some fisheries.

Under such circumstances, management action may be needed. Such action should balance the need to safeguard fish stocks and fisheries with the conservation of the birds, although striking such a balance may not always be easy.

A.G.A Fisheries Management Team have designed various fish refuges over the 20 years we have been operating and installed them on sites in various locations around the UK. A.G.A are recognised as one of the top organisations in the country when it comes to dealing with specialist aquatic problems such as this and our team of Fishery Management Consultants are on hand to help with any of your fishery management enquiries.

Eco-Island refuges come in standard sizes but can be built to specific shapes and sizes depending on customer requirements. One of our expert advisers can help throughout the design and installation stage

Other anti-cormorant measures

The use of nets or wires can also exclude or deter fish eating birds such as cormorants from accessing a particular site and owing to their durability can provide a long term option for reducing the risk of predation. Net enclosures can completely enclose a site and exclude all birds.In contrast ‘wires’ can deter birds but are unlikely to exclude them altogether. Nonetheless wires can still be effective at reducing the losses of fish and are particularly effective where the birds have access to other feeding sites.

Nets and wires are viable management options at reducing predation loss at some sites but can be costly, however temporary structures can be put in place to reduce this cost, this is most applicable in winter months where fish are more susceptible to predation.

Nets and wires should be regarded as one of several tools for managing cormorant/fishery conflicts. The durability and potential long term efficacy of these techniques should be weighed against the losses to predation and the cost of alternative deterrent measures in assessing the applicability to any site.

A.G.A are happy to offer advice on such matters and can often present sustainable solutions to combat predation loss without resorting to lethal methods.